Napoleonic Battle Scene Books (1 Viewer)

[Spitfrnd]

I know there has been some discussion of this in various threads but I wanted to see what books of Napoleonic battle prints members found the best? I would love to find some like the excellent Don Troiani's Civil War volume. So what are your favorites for the Napoleonic period?

 

[Warrior]

Bill,
Great topic, here are some excellent ones I've been lucky enough to get my hands on;

Waterloo by Lachouque; THE book on the battle for artwork, if there is another as good as or better, let me know.

Napoleons War in Spain by Lachouque; again, THE book on the Peninsular Campaign, loaded with great artwork.

On Campaign in the Age of Napoleon, the works of Keith Rocco; a top shelf artist, one of the best if not the best of his generation, covers a variety of topics, beautiful book.

1813- La Campagne d'Allemagne by Jean Tranie; covers the German campaign of 1813

1814-La Campagne De France by Jean Tranie; covers the 1814 French Campagin.

1812-La Campagne De Russie by Jean Tranie; covers the 1812 Russian Campaign.

He has written several other books, the 1805 campaign, the 1806 campaign, the 1807 campaign, the 1809 campaign among them, terrific books loaded with artwork. All of his books are in French, are out of print, but can be found via searching the internet, several of his works command 500.00 or more.

My two most favorite titles in closing;

Napoleon En 1814 by Koch; covers the French Campaign.

Napoleon En Allemagne by Clement; covers the 1813 Campaign.

These two books are massive volumes, each with 600+ pages, the artwork in both is staggering, one terrific painting after another. Both are in French, but who cares, the artwork is the thing with these, both published by Le Livre Chex Vous out of Paris, well worth the price, both are still in print.

Interested to see what others come up with, Napoleonic artwork is one of my passions........

 

[Spitfrnd]

Thanks much George; I knew I could count on you for this topic. I previously purchased and have quite enjoyed Waterloo by Lachouque, based on your previous recommendation. I have a couple of lines on Napoleons War in Spain by Lachouque and Keith Rocco's work but found not much on the rest available for sale so far.

 

[Scarlet Pimpernel]

George has made some wonderful recommendations, and a couple that I don't know, but will certainly investigate. Although not stictly "battle prints," there are two others that contain some great color prints worth looking at:

1) Wellingtons Army, Philip Haythornthwaite (Plates by Charles Hamilton Smith). You probably know this book, but the large format really lends itself to these beautiful plates

2) The other is a relatively new book (2009): Armies of the Napoleonic Wars, an illustrated history (edited by Chris McNab). The text is little more than a survey, although I did discover a few new tidbits. Although you will recognise a few of the images that have been recycled in so many texts on this period (did I mention that this book is published by Osprey?) there are many new and exciting illustrations, many of them illustrating battle action. This isn't a typical Osprey publication, that often provides laundry lists of uniform accoutrements and statistics. There are some excellent narrative accounts of many of the major battles and equally good accompanying illustrations.

 

[Warrior]

Thanks much George; I knew I could count on you for this topic. I previously purchased and have quite enjoyed Waterloo by Lachouque, based on your previous recommendation. I have a couple of lines on Napoleons War in Spain by Lachouque and Keith Rocco's work but found not much on the rest available for sale so far.

Bill,
Glad to help, try bookfinder4u.com, a great source for books, all you have to do is enter either the title or author and up pops numerous sellers from whom you can buy the books.

Also try Abe books, a great source for out of print books.

Also try On Military Matters here in the states, owned by a great and helpful fellow named Dennis Shorthouse, he's got all the latest and the greatest books on hand, also is a good source for rare books from Europe as that is truly the place for all the great Napoleonic books.

 

[Warrior]

George has made some wonderful recommendations, and a couple that I don't know, but will certainly investigate. Although not stictly "battle prints," there are two others that contain some great color prints worth looking at:

1) Wellingtons Army, Philip Haythornthwaite (Plates by Charles Hamilton Smith). You probably know this book, but the large format really lends itself to these beautiful plates

2) The other is a relatively new book (2009): Armies of the Napoleonic Wars, an illustrated history (edited by Chris McNab). The text is little more than a survey, although I did discover a few new tidbits. Although you will recognise a few of the images that have been recycled in so many texts on this period (did I mention that this book is published by Osprey?) there are many new and exciting illustrations, many of them illustrating battle action. This isn't a typical Osprey publication, that often provides laundry lists of uniform accoutrements and statistics. There are some excellent narrative accounts of many of the major battles and equally good accompanying illustrations.

Nick,
My pleasure, you can't go wrong with any of the books I've listed, the last two especially, if you are not happy with either one, I'd be shocked.

The McNab book you mentioned is a nice book, leafed through it but have not picked it up yet.

There is also a superb book called "Napoleon; Napoleonic rules and campaigns for gaming with painted miniatures"...........wonderfully illustrated with painted 28mm figures, some nice layouts of battles using hundreds of figures, I enjoy this book very much, refer to it at least once or twice a week.............you can pick it up off of Amazon for really short money, about 30.00, it retails for 50.00.

 

[Spitfrnd]

Thanks guys; sounds like some great suggestions. I have and agree about Wellington's Armies. I will see if I can find some of the others.

 

[Dragoon]

While not necessarily battle scenes, '' Napoleon's Elite Cavalry, Cavalry of the Imperial Guard, the Paintings of Lucien Rousselot'' - text by Edward Ryan, is a beautiful book.
Rousselot was THE MASTER at authenticlly illustrating Napoleons Grand Armee.
It's a larger format book published by Greenhill Books w/ nice big colour plates. One of my favorite books.

 

[cantinetozzo]

Two books i like particularly are these in the pics, the Russian Campaign of 1812, portrayed by real witnesses of the events.Another really good book is "Soldiers and Uniforms of Napoleonic Wars" with plates by Girbal & Courcelle (an artist i love for the great attention to the detail) by Histore et Collections.

 

[Spitfrnd]

More great suggestions, thanks mates. I found a nice copy of Napoleons War in Spain by Lachouque for $1.30 and a copy of Armies of the Napoleonic Wars, an illustrated history for $15 so I am making some good progress as a result of your feedback. Thanks much again.